Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet not so tragic after all

The cast of “Romeo and Juliet, 10 Years Later” will have a two-night run in Orland Park Nov. 15 and 16. (Handout, Bravo Theater Troupe)

Who knew that Romeo and Juliet faked their own deaths?

Who knew that they went off and hid and their feuding families never knew a thing about it?

Who knew the young lovers had seven kids?

Who knew that they lived out in the country?

Who knew that Romeo wanted to move back to Verona so that he could work at a new job as an assistant grave digger?

Mike Rago knew.

It came to the Downers Grove real estate company owner and musician one morning in December 2011, and he wrote a comedic play about it. "Romeo and Juliet, 10 Years Later" hit the stage in Naperville in March and Addison in October with the Bravo Theatre Troupe performing the farce.

It will have a two-show run at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15 and Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Southbridge Church, 15530 S. 73rd. Ave. in Orland Park. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for children and seniors.

The costumes and settings will be pure Willliam Shakespeare, but the ancient English that the author used will be scrapped and replaced with modern English.

Rago, an Oak Forest native who plays in local bands The Spazmatics and Afrodisiacs, came up with the idea of the two young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, faking suicides early one December morning.

"I had the idea in my head for a long time, but never put the pen to paper," he said. "Then, I had the thought. I literally woke up at 4 a.m. during Christmas break and woke up the whole house with one of those 'eureka!' moments.

"I jumped up out of bed and started typing. In a couple of days, I had 150 pages just splattered with ideas and scenes and things like that. I just got into one of those modes where you just go and just don't stop. I didn't stop until I had a draft together."

But it was too much and he self-edited the opus.

"It was huge and I spent months to develop the script and cut it down," he said. "And it's always a work in progress. Even from the spring shows to the fall shows, I had to do some basic rewrites. I made some changes and added some things and took some other things out to try to make it better.''

He admits that it's humorous to be carrying on a famous story written by a man considered one of the greatest authors of all time.

"That crosses your mind that this is one of the greatest stories of all time here and I'm writing the sequel," Rigo said. "But this is all in the name of fun comedy and family entertainment.''